A New York man murdered his wife and tried to cover up her death at their Wayne County home in 2010, District Attorney Janine Edwards and state police said Wednesday.

Troopers charged 71-year-old Robert George Jufer with one count of criminal homicide on Wednesday for shooting his wife in the head with a shotgun at their Cherry Ridge Twp. home on Oct. 17, 2010.

Statements released by state police and Ms. Edwards on Wednesday did not indicate why there was more than a two-year delay in the case. Ms. Edwards is planning to hold a news conference today to answer questions.

Troopers found Mrs. Jufer, 68, dead in her bed with the covers pulled almost over her head and a shotgun laying on the bedroom floor near her.

Investigators determined Mr. Jufer owned the shotgun - one of 108 rifles, shotguns and handguns stored at their home.

In an interview with investigators, he said he had used the weapon earlier in the day to "look for a muskrat" near their 238 White Mills Road home, and then placed it on his kitchen table before heading to a local Walmart in nearby Texas Twp, investigators said.

He claimed he was attacked by an unidentified assailant to the point of unconsciousness after returning from Walmart, investigators said. When he regained consciousness, he went to a neighbor's home to contact police.

On Wednesday, Ms. Edwards revealed that Mr. Jufer also admitted to troopers that, after he was allegedly attacked, he did not look for his wife or arm himself with a weapon before fleeing their home.

In later interviews, Mr. Jufer gave conflicting reports of the attack, state police said around the time of Mrs. Jufer's death.

In one account, he told a state trooper the attacker put a plastic bag around his head, rendering him unconscious. In another account, he said the attacker wrapped a cord or a rope around his neck and applied pressure until he lost consciousness, state police said.

After he revived, he attempted to call police but his phone did not work. That's when he went to a neighbor's home to call police, troopers said.

On Wednesday, investigators revealed there were a "lack" of injuries to his neck and the evidence at the scene did not match the events as relayed by Mr. Jufer.

A piece of rope in their kitchen that Mr. Jufer claimed he was strangled with matched with a spool of rope discovered in his basement, which "demonstrates a staged crime scene," the district attorney said in a news release.

"This was a despicable crime committed against a helpless wife by a man who behaved as a survivalist, keeping over 100 different weapons in his home in Pennsylvania," Ms. Edwards said. "I have reviewed this case for the 12 months I have been in office and believe the homicide charge filed against Robert Jufer to be appropriate."

The case was first taken up by then-Wayne County District Attorney Michael Lehutsky. It is now in the hands of Ms. Edwards, after he lost his re-election bid to her in 2011.

State police and a SWAT team comprised of New York law enforcement found Mr. Jufer at his other home in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County, which is just north of the Bronx in the New York metropolitan area.

He was taken into custody without incident and is expected to appear before a New York judge for an extradition hearing today, police said.

Efforts to reach Trooper Connie Devens, a state police spokeswoman in Dunmore, were unsuccessful on Wednesday.

According to a search warrant obtained by The Times-Tribune at the time of the killing, when state troopers combed through their home, they spotted several items of interest in the kitchen.

This included a wooden dowel with blood on it, a box of blue latex gloves, three blue latex gloves from the counter top, two green, flat ropes in a box and four blood swabs.

The inventory also listed an empty Friskies cat food can "with blood on bottom," though it did not specify its location in the house, and two receipts from Walmart, according to the search warrant.

In a bottom shelf in the home's living room, police found two books: "The Crime Busters Book" and "The World's Greatest Crimes Book," according to the search warrant.

Found in the basement were 26 suspected homemade improvised pyrotechnics, two suspected pyrotechnic filler powders, a bag of hobby fuse and a spool of green, flat rope.

According to Mrs. Jufer's obituary published in The Journal News newspaper in New York on Oct. 24, 2010, she married Mr. Jufer on Dec. 4, 1971, at a church in Yonkers, N.Y.

They settled in Dobbs Ferry and recently moved to Hastings.

She worked for the Pennsylvania Central Railroad after attending Katherine Gibbs Business School, according to the obituary.

The obit lists four children, Robert, Heather, Glenn, and Eric, as well as her "cherished grandson Van."

On Wednesday night, Mr. Jufer was being held at the Westchester County Jail. Bail information was not available.

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